Stratics Veteran

Stratics Veteran

Thanks, Cal!
I like the bite-size chunks of content part. That should work well for many of us.
Is UO going to be f2p? I know, I know... video House of Commons. =)
I would prefer that UO not become f2p, but I would love to see new players join the game.

Stratics Veteran

I like the bite-size chunks of content part. That should work well for many of us.

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It'll also work well with new players, especially the bit about the quests moving away from "kill 10 things or gather 10 things" - they really needed to avoid some of the boring/leveling-style quests of other games and this would work.

Is UO going to be f2p?

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They are giving us a better client and high resolution artwork, it won't need to be f2p.

Stratics Veteran

Sure, they're working on the future of the game right now. Not working on the past.

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Amen. The booster pack stuff did not feel like it was working towards the future of the game. I like the idea of utilizing under-utilized areas such as parts of the ocean, and I wouldn't mind seeing it happen elsewhere in Britannia, but without things like more work on the EC or graphics that take advantage of post-2005 computers, it felt like a bone to toss to the remaining players.

Higher resolution artwork plus work on the client is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for, as far as a sign that they were serious about the future.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

i dont have an issue downloading a gig, but i see how those with slower connections might be getting the "oh i started this download then forgot all about it - now where was i? oh... <insert a completly different thing here>" syndrome.

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This is a shortened version of the original.
We will cover more information in the Video House of Commons ... February 30th.

Kidding! ... March 1st.

See you there,

- C

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Definitely NOT worth going past the January deadline for that tidbit, I am thinking this was a last minute job, there was not anything i seen in that video that warranted being a month and a half late........

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

i dont have an issue downloading a gig, but i see how those with slower connections might be getting the "oh i started this download then forgot all about it - now where was i? oh... <insert a completly different thing here>" syndrome.

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The gist of the '200 mb' initial download is it's for new players looking round the new 'introductory' area - rest of the client downloads while they play in that bit of the game, so they can get up and running quicker. Reasonable enough.... waiting for a gig download to even see if something looks fun is probably best avoided.

Definitely NOT worth going past the January deadline for that tidbit, I am thinking this was a last minute job, there was not anything i seen in that video that warranted being a month and a half late........

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Cal said "all the things that have happened between January 3rd and now" in the other thread implying that a lot happened over the last month and a half, so I'm assuming that the mystery will be cleared up next week either in the chat or the longer video.

We probably won't find out any particulars, but I wonder what was involved with them getting the resources to bring in high-resolution artwork, and if that was the "all the things that have happened between January 3rd and now" bit. Upgrading the artwork had to have been a tough sell to EA.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

And what the ... we're getting away from mob kill quests and focusing on the story? Then Cal is like we don't need long story arcs? ROFL I'm pretty happy with how UO is right now, but you guys need to sign a COMM major. NO ONE SHOULD DISLIKE KILL 10 QUESTS! It's the obtain 10 items that suck. I mean, it depends on the person, killing 10 mongbats will keep your wrists healthier than making 10 broadswords.

New player area ... so we had Haven, then we had New Haven, what is this one going to be called? New New Haven?

As for the earlier response in this thread regarding the higher-resolution bit, am I wrong, or is Brinkman just talking about the EC as the "higher-resolution" client?

All in all I'm fairly underwhelmed by the video, but I'm the kind of guy who likes to see a bulleted list of what we can expect, in concrete terms, heh. Not "we are getting rid of kill quests to focus on story but not too much story."

He was talking about the client and kind of summed it up and then said it's "always been a dream of ours to get a higher resolution environment artset" and they showed two different videos - one zoomed in and one zoomed out, and the one that was zoomed in didn't seem pixelated. Granted, the video was 360p instead of 720p, but the artwork seemed to reflect higher resolution, because at that zoom level, it really looks bad with the current art work.

If they put all that effort into the new player experience and don't roll out new artwork, that would be hilarious. And sad. It would be something that EA would do

Been Playing Ultima since Ultima 1....... Great job on this! I can't wait to see the full video. One thing I always loved about Ultima. Everytime it came out with the next edition it was always cutting edge graphics and interacion!!!

Stratics Veteran

As for the earlier response in this thread regarding the higher-resolution bit, am I wrong, or is Brinkman just talking about the EC as the "higher-resolution" client?

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What does improve the EC art mean EXACTLY?

Is it we will just only change the male paperdolls? That is all. Mission Accomplished.
Is it we will totally revamp Factions and just only move the location of a base?
Is it we will stop cheaters and just only ban 10 accounts?
Is it we will dedicate dev time to Siege after this publish and nada?
Is it we will rebuild Magincia and a year (or 3) later you are still saying we will rebuild Magincia?

Or is it

We will turn the EC into a 3D client this year
We will redo every single bit of EC art this year
We have hired 2 new full time experienced artists from Activision

So what precisely has been done to improve EC art recently, what precisely will be done, and when will this be completed. Otherwise yet again it is just only empty words.

Stratics Veteran

Is it we will just only change the male paperdolls? That is all. Mission Accomplished.Is it we will totally revamp Factions and just only move the location of a base?
Is it we will stop cheaters and just only ban 10 accounts?
Is it we will dedicate dev time to Siege after this publish and nada?
Is it we will rebuild Magincia and a year (or 3) later you are still saying we will rebuild Magincia?

Or is it

We will turn the EC into a 3D client this year
We will redo every single bit of EC art this year
We have hired 2 new full time experienced artists from Activision

So what precisely has been done to improve EC art recently, what precisely will be done, and when will this be completed. Otherwise yet again it is just only empty words.

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